40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Matthew 13
I read this as everyone getting their just deserts. Those who are weeds, that choke the potential of others, will end up as weeds pulled from a garden, allowing the righteous to flourish. I'm not sure that verses 41 & 42 are devoid of aphorism. Sounds like more of a reassurance to the believer than anything. Like saying those who wrong you will meet their fate.
But non--theists are liable to prefer the worst possible interpretation they can imaging.
"There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching—an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance, find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane towards the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to take the line of indignation. You probably all remember the sort of things that Socrates was saying when he was dying, and the sort of things that he generally did say to people who did not agree with him.
You will find that in the Gospels Christ said: ‘Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?’ That was said to people who did not like His preaching. It is not really to my mind quite the best tone, and there are a great many of these things about hell. There is, of course, the familiar text about the sin against the Holy Ghost: ‘Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world of come.’ That text has caused an unspeakable amount of misery in the world, for all sorts of people have imagined that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, and thought that it would not be forgiven them either in this world or in the world to come. I really do not think that a person with a proper degree of kindliness in his nature would have put fears and terrors of that sort into the world.
Then Christ says: ‘The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth’; and He goes on about the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It comes in one verse after another, and it is quite manifest to the reader that there is a certain pleasure in contemplating wailing and gnashing of teeth, or else it would not occur so often. Then you all, of course, remember about the sheep and the goats; how at the second coming to divide the sheep and the goats He is going to say to the goats: ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.’ He continues: ‘And these shall go away into everlasting fire.’ Then He says again: ‘If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.’ He repeats that again and again also. I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as His chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible for that."---Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not A Christian,
https://users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html
Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven, and often in parables. But, the reality of hell (to a believer) isn't the end of the story. The Gospel message of hope, redemption and sacrifice is Jesus' response to hell. His death and resurrection displays his triumph over hell, so to speak. While it's an uncomfortable truth of the Bible, I've come to see it as God letting go of those who never wished to know or follow him, in the first place. He allows people to make their own decisions, with a warning, I suppose. I think that it's tough to understand why eternal punishment would be meted out by an almighty Creator, for what some might consider, a seemingly insignificant infraction (like not following Jesus, for example). But, I've learned that it's not the end of the story, or the sum total of Christianity.
Thank God.
Again, people choose hell, all on their own. Once people make the choice to start justifying their bad behavior, it's nigh impossible to quit, the behavior or the justifying.
(Feb 25, 2020 04:32 AM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]Again, people choose hell, all on their own. Once people make the choice to start justifying their bad behavior, it's nigh impossible to quit, the behavior or the justifying.
Sure, because everyone who doesn't choose Jesus as their invisible friend is really choosing to burn in hell forever. lol!
I'll see you all there. Why in hell do people worry about this stuff? How many non sinners are there? If we're all sinners then the whole religion is suspect. Imagine learning a religion from a bunch of sinners....that in itself doesn't sound right but it's what happens. I won't be joining any bible study group full of sinners...lol
lmao ^^
It's a ''study,'' not an attempt to indoctrinate anyone.
Everyone who chooses to separate themselves from God ends up in a hell of their own making.
(Feb 25, 2020 11:51 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]Everyone who chooses to separate themselves from God ends up in a hell of their own making.
No they don't. There are atheists and agnostics all over the world that are living happy and successful lives. Hell is a revenge fantasy invented by the sanctimonous who resent the godless for living a free and happy life.
